Better than Revenge
by ThatisneverThat
Summary: "Grace isn't just some random stranger! Have some respect!" Rigsby shouted and walked out.   Lisbon watched Rigsby leave the room, knowing that it wasn't worth following him. She glared at Jane before dishing out orders to Cho. "We're finding her. Today."
1. Rebel without a cause

**Hi Thanks for taking the time to read this, it's my first mentalist fanfic but I came up with the idea the other day and thought I'd get writing. I don't own the mentalist or any of the characters in it, I also apologise if I've got any minor details wrong, but hopefully it's okay.**

"Van Pelt!" Lisbon screeched as the car slid round the corner in hot pursuit of the truck in front, "Sometimes your driving scares me more than Jane's!" Grace said nothing as they sped round yet another corner on to a country track. She knew these roads well enough to realise they were about to corner this truck, in the rear view mirror she could see they'd lost Rigsby and Cho a while back – just her and the boss then. As they reached the end of the track, she braced herself ready to jump out when they stopped. Pressing her foot down hard on the brake, she ignored Lisbon screaming at her about what she was doing as she tugged at the handbrake and jumped out of the car, choosing after the guy who was driving the truck. Van Pelt caught up with him quicker than she expected and then pounced on the guy from behind, shouting the usual garble before cuffing him. Finally Lisbon appeared from where she'd run after them.  
>"What the hell has got in to you Van Pelt?" Lisbon stared at her with that evil glare, telling Grace she was in some serious trouble.<br>"Well…" she began "sometimes they just deserve it."  
>"Yes, but you're still holding this guy down by the head!" Lisbon watched her reaction, Grace said nothing, she'd run out of excuses by this point so she just stood up, holding him by the hand cuffs and following the boss' gesture to take him to the car. As she slammed the door, Grace saw Rigsby and Cho pull up with Jane in the back – oh joy, here comes the psychoanalysis…<p>

"Woah, Lisbon's pissed…" Jane said immediately after he jumped out of the car. Lisbon shot him a sharp 'shut your mouth' glare which he followed, and then turned his attention to Van Pelt who looked equally annoyed, "Good girl gone bad? I like it – good driving by the way. Hey Rigsby, we've got a rebel in the group!" When all he received was yet another glare, Jane knew something was going on. Just another problem to figure out, that's what he enjoyed most.

Grace walked away from them all, kicking the sand in anger as she headed for somewhere to sit on her own and hoping they'd leave her to it for a bit. Eventually she saw a decent spot and sat down, not having banked on being followed. Rigsby didn't say anything, just sat there and Grace couldn't really decide whether she'd rather he kept quiet or just babbled annoyingly like he usually did to her. The silence was nice she decided, and just stared ahead at the horizon. Rigsby looked over. The usual pale, calm and beautiful face of Grace Van Pelt was red, angry and almost scary… but still beautiful. Wayne could tell she just needed comforting, someone to help her calm; damn he wanted to be that guy. Grace hadn't moved since he sat down, hadn't spoken, and hadn't asked him to leave… he moved his hand to hers.  
>"Are you okay Grace…?" She tore her hand away immediately.<br>"Your timing is crap Rigsby. Really bloody crap." Wayne stood up, looked apologetic before turning to walk away, walking straight in to Lisbon.  
>"Watch where you're going Rigsby, go with Cho back to HQ with Pierson, and hold him there till I get back okay?" She waited for him to leave before moving towards Grace. "I want to take you to lead on this interview… I don't know why, but I do. You clearly have an idea why we're bringing this guy in so…" she almost wasn't believing herself as she said it, but something needed to distract Van Pelt. However a complete lack of excitement from her was unusual… "You don't want to do it?" That got her.<br>"Oh no, I want to do it. I'll get a confession out of him." She stood up, running off to the car.

_CBI HQ_

Lisbon had a feeling she was going to regret asking Van Pelt to conduct the interview, but quite frankly she just wanted to know why her best behaved officer had gone practically psycho on her. Jane stood behind, watching through the glass. "I'm warning you, this is going to get out of control Lisbon."  
>"Van Pelt is hardly going to go crazy in an interview, the worst we'll get is shouting and we all do that."<br>"Don't be so sure…"  
>Lisbon ignored that comment and watched Grace. "Come on Pierson, I'm getting this confession out of you one way or another!" Pierson didn't respond, just looked at her as if he didn't have a clue what she was on about which was pretty much what Lisbon expected. But what happened next was really not…. Craig Pierson leaned in to Van Pelt, and she took it as if expecting a confession to come out of it. Whatever was said was inaudible to Lisbon until "You bastard!" Grace shouted, standing up and thumping him hard and kicking the chair. Lisbon ran in, grabbing Van Pelt and pulling her out.<p>

Grace caught Wayne's eye as she was pushed towards Lisbon's office, he was worried… with fair reason she realised. She sat down on the other side of Lisbon's desk, staring out of the window and completely ignorant to everything being said to her. All she could think about was Rigsby finding any part of the truth out. There were too many secrets at stake now.  
>"Van Pelt! Go home, now. Give me your gun; I'm not risking anything with you right now." Lisbon said, clearly having lost the will to live at this moment.<br>"But boss! I need to be on this case, you don't understand…" Grace protested immediately.  
>"No, no I don't Van Pelt. Why on earth could this case be so important? You just hit the guy! What did he say to you Grace?" She said nothing. "Home!<p>

**Thank you for reading to the end! Feel free to review **


	2. Mystery to be solved

**Thanks to anyone who's read so far :) I finished the second chapter today so here it is. Hope you enjoy x**

_Van Pelt's home_

Grace was so annoyed with herself. Why had she let it get to her so easily? She needed this job and she needed to catch this guy. She knew he'd done it, she knew he'd killed those innocent children… his own children. None of them believed her, not even Jane and he was meant to know who did everything! It took her a while to realise that she'd just overfilled her coffee and was pouring boiling water all over her other hand. "Shit…" she whispered angrily and turned the cold tap on, stroking her hand under it.

_CBI HQ  
><em>  
>Lisbon let Pierson go not long after Van Pelt, almost to stop him from reporting her, but they didn't have anything to hold him on anyway. Jane stood in the doorway of her office. "He knows Van Pelt." Lisbon looked at him, not even bothering to ask what he meant. "Seriously, it's obvious. He has something on her that she doesn't want us to know, hence her hitting him." Jane looked really pleased with himself which drove Lisbon mad.<br>"Don't talk crap Jane. Van Pelt would have said," she replied, almost trying to persuade herself as she said it. Jane didn't even have to point out that she'd already said the interview would go okay, and that hadn't gone well. It was clear to everyone that something was wrong, could it really be to do with the case? Grace was the one who froze at the scene; she immediately said it was the father when she met him, she hadn't seen it before but it could be… was she linked to him? Or even the kids? Time to investigate… herself, this needed to be quiet. "Oi, Lisbon, you know I'm right. Infact you're now going to try and find a link. Enjoy!" Jane left, leaving the door open. When she looked up Rigsby was glaring at her. Damn, he was going to be angry with her… either way; she had to find out so she got investigating. Ironic really, the best person to find this out would be Van Pelt herself.

_Van Pelt's home_

Grace sat at home with the TV on, not really watching it and holding her hand close. She kept looking over to the draw in the corner which held her off-duty gun. Her phone disturbed her, she answered immediately. "Grace? It's me… Rigsby. Are you okay? Lisbon's not talking to us about what happened and Jane is convinced you have just gone psycho… why did you hit that guy? Jane said he whispered something to you? What was it? Should we know? It might help…" he talked on and on pointlessly.  
>"Rigsby please shut up. I'm fine, Lisbon and Jane are overreacting. I was just overtired and it's so damn obvious he did it. You'll realise that eventually," Grace said, really not caring much anything else. Rigsby could tell she was fed up already and he didn't really have the heart or the nerve to tell her they'd let him go. "Wayne…? He is still there right…?" and without thinking he hung up the phone, leaving Grace absolutely fuming.<p>

_CBI HQ_

Jane lay on his couch, staring up at the Elvis coffee stain on the ceiling. He wasn't going to admit it, but he genuinely couldn't work out who had committed this murder, everyone they'd met just didn't seem to fit the timescale or the motive. Grace's theory about the dad just seemed insane, but it wasn't exactly like her to go all crazy on them. Van Pelt definitely had something on this guy that she wasn't sharing and that's exactly what was bugging him – if only he could access her computer…. He jumped up and went to her desk, winking at Cho to make sure he didn't question. 'Password…password…password…' he murmured to himself before Rigsby caught his eye. Would she really? W-R-I-G-S-B-Y 'Oh dear Van Pelt, you're too easy…' Jane immediately realised how much research she'd been doing on Pierson, there were hundreds of pages open on her computer. Time to get reading…

Down the room, Lisbon was still hiding in her office, trying to work out what had caused all this. She had searched through the database, searched newspapers. Pierson had nothing but a shoplifting charge when he was 20. She'd even resorted to Grace's file but of course there was nothing there… but it did feel like there was something missing, something she'd read before… or she might just be clutching at straws. She glanced up slightly, just for a second… and then she had to look up again. Jane was at Grace's desk? He doesn't do desks… she walked out. "Hey, Jane, what you up to?" Jane didn't have a sarcastic answer for her.  
>"I… think you need to see this Lisbon. Grace has been trying hard to find out about this guy but she's found a lot of dead pages, a lot of missing information. Someone has been editing this… including his criminal record. "Jane looked up at Lisbon, seeing exactly the shocked face he expected.<br>"And Grace had realised this and was trying to work out why… hence her suspecting him. But I still want to know how you got on here?" Actually she didn't care, but she needed Jane off this, if there was something to be found; she needed to find it.  
>"She's too easy." Jane grinned at her, before leaving. Lisbon was just glad it worked, and headed back to her office to investigate; this was going to get messy…<p>

_Van Pelt's home_

Rigsby went up the stairs to Van Pelt's door, hesitating over whether he should knock. Someone needed to check on her anyway, just because it was him didn't mean anything. Yeh he loved her, and yeh everyone knew that, but it didn't mean anything… everyone was worried about her not just him. As he knocked he wondered if he'd made a mistake; if Grace was upset it would make it even harder for him to resist comforting her, and that didn't go down too well last time. After a good couple of minutes with no response, he knocked again. "Grace? Grace it's just me… no one else, I just want to make sure you're okay. Open up?" still no answer. "Grace stop this, you never go out without us so you must be in…." Nothing. Something was wrong, Rigsby could sense it. Instinctively he tried the handle, the door opened immediately which confused him a little, Grace had a thing about locked doors. "Gr… Van Pelt? Are you in here? Anyone else in here?" he wandered about the house, looking for signs of life but there was no one in. Why would she leave without locking the door? Walking in to the kitchen the first thing he saw was the bandage half cut, lying on the side and immediately he looked over to her draws. "No… no way." This was too familiar to Rigsby, bandage and missing gun? Far too much like the remnants of a kidnapping…


	3. Something Hidden

**And here be chapter 3. Thank you for reading and hope you enjoy. Please review **

**Obviously still don't own the mentalist and I apologise for any upset this may cause! **

_Van Pelt's home_

Lisbon pulled up outside the house with the others. This case was turning out to be the nightmare they'd all been dreading, and walking up the steps to Van Pelt's house scared her more than any other case. Rigsby met them at the door, looking more worried than she'd ever seen him and they all knew why.  
>"There's erm… no sign of a struggle. No note, no blood or anything. But the door was unlocked and the bandage… and her gun is missing." Rigsby looked at them all, willing them to say something. Cho was just looking around in his unemotional state. Jane was wandering around in a seemingly meaningless way and Lisbon was watching Jane, so nothing unusual there. The silence was worse than anything right now.<br>"If she was kidnapped she went willingly. But you're right; it's not like Grace to leave anything untidy… so something's happened." Jane went on as he usually did which drove Rigsby mad. "So, essentially if she went with someone willingly then it's not a kidnapping at all…" Rigsby felt the anger boil up inside him as he spoke "Or, she knew the kidnappers and was scared stiff…" that was it, he thumped Jane hard.  
>"Grace isn't just some random stranger! Have some respect!" Rigsby shouted and walked out.<br>Lisbon watched Rigsby leave the room, knowing that it wasn't worth following him. She glared at Jane before dishing out orders to Cho. "We're finding her. Today."

_CBI HQ_

Lisbon watched Wayne staring at Grace's desk. This was never going to get anywhere if it was just her and Cho. She'd already had to send Jane home before he wound Rigsby up anymore. This was never going to be an easy case; one of her agents who she had sent home was now somewhere around, possibly in a lot of danger. It was hard not to blame herself really, seeing as it was pretty much her fault. She watched Rigsby try to phone Grace for the 43rd time since they'd got back, and she was counting. Cho entered whilst Rigsby was leaving yet another message, Lisbon left her office to see what he was going to say.  
>"You won't get an answer," he held up Grace's phone in an evidence bag, "I found it on the pavement just outside of her house. It was thrown, there's a lot of scrapes on the screen. I'll get it dusted over." Cho walked back out again, figuring he wasn't going to get a response. Everyone was a bit too emotionally over this for him, yeh she was part of the team but this was just the same as any investigation, they should be working not messing about with useless things that won't get them anywhere.<p>

_Sacramento streets_

Grace stopped outside the house where they'd started the day, staring up at the window of the bedroom they'd found the girls in. She sat down on the sidewalk, just staring at the window as if hoping to see the girls running around in there, like this case had never started. The quietness of the streets seemed weird, like people were purposely avoiding this road… but then when there's been a murder people rarely want to visit it; apart from her. Van Pelt reached in her pocket, feeling nothing she realised she must have dropped her phone – not that she cared much, this was a lot easier on her own.  
>She waited for hours outside that house, watching the odd car drive passed the odd person walk by and stair at her and the homeless guy who tried to flirt with her. None of it bothered her one but, that wasn't the reason she was there; who really wants to watch the world go by? There's always motive behind it. Grace's motive almost scared herself but sometimes you have to go with what you know… in this case, the truth. She might be the rookie, the junior agent, but sometimes less means more – she knew the answer and justice <em>was <em>going to be paid.

_CBI HQ_

Lisbon walked out of her office and over to Rigsby who was staring at his phone, still. "Hey, have you done any work…? She's not going to call if she has no phone is she? Come on, you need to go and sleep, you haven't left the office since we found out… Rigsby?" He looked up at her, so close to asleep he might as well have been sleepwalking.  
>"She needs us to be working… I'm running a search, I think… I don't know…" Lisbon gave him an 'exactly' stare. "Okay, I see your point… but I can't go home so tired, I'll just sleep here." He was serious, so she left him be. Cho had gone to check something out a while back, it didn't seem worth checking out but they were trying anything they could think of. Something had to come up…<p>

_Outside the house_

Grace was still sat there hours later, waiting for Pierson to appear from the house. Before he'd left, a car pulled up. The car didn't register for a few seconds, before the realisation kicked in. 'Shit…' she said to herself, but it was too late – he'd seen her.  
>"Van Pelt?" Cho shouted as he rushed out of the car. From a distance she looked scared, very tired and there was a bandage on her hand… she was hurt. "Hey, it's just me, Cho." He started walking across the road to her but Grace stood up, walking away as if she hadn't heard him. "Van Pelt we've been looking for you for 24 hours, did someone take you? Are you hurt?" Cho couldn't really believe himself when he sounded so caring, but he was saying it, didn't mean he got a reply. "V…Grace! If I don't take you back with me Rigsby are going to kill me, so fancy helping me out here?" He was bargaining now? What was the world coming to?<br>Grace put her hand on the gun held under her jacket. Cho was driving her mad, she didn't want to talk to them could she not have made that any clearer? She didn't care what anyone thought right now because they'd all let her down. Cho's shouting just became an arrogant whining in her ear, "I'll save Rigsby the bother!" she shouted at him before shooting. She froze immediately, realising what she'd done before running off in complete fright.


	4. Hint to the Past

**Hey guys! Thank you for favouriting/story alerting this. Means a lot. This update is dedicated to Agathanancy98 who seemed a little stressed after reading chapter 3, sorry!**

_CBI HQ_

Rigsby woke to Cho running in to the office, he could immediately tell something was wrong and stood up. "Cho? What's happened? What did you find?" He'd never seen Cho so… frenzied.  
>"Van Pelt… outside Pierson's… I tried to talk to her… she looked hurt… but she walked away… I followed… but she shot at me… and got away…" Cho sat down, completely worn out from trying to chase after her. Lisbon had appeared from her office, hearing what Cho said.<br>"She shot at you? Cho was she with anyone? Did she say anything?" Lisbon questioned him, not even allowing him to catch his breath. Every step of this inquiry was scaring Lisbon more, something was going on with Grace Van Pelt and she needed to know what…  
>"No one was with her, but she had a bandage on her hand. I don't think she was kidnapped Lisbon, I think she left of her own accord. But something's not right… she missed me when she shot; I don't think she meant to. So a) She's hurt her own hand, her gun hand and that's not going to make life easier and b) She tried to shoot me. Something's wrong, something is really, really wrong." Cho looked up at Lisbon and Rigsby as he said that last sentence, making it plainly obvious he was worried but not showing it physically.<p>

_Sutter's Fort State Historic Park, Sacramento_

Van Pelt stopped running when she reached the park. She had looked back enough to see Cho get up and run after her, she'd missed… but somehow she didn't feel relieved. All she could think about was getting back to Pierson as soon as she could so she could prove he killed those girls and show that she could do this. Something caught her eye as she turned to move out again, someone was watching her in the corner of the park… someone who wanted her, someone who'd wanted her for a long, long time… and was now chasing her.  
>Grace ran, as fast as she could all over again, heading back to Pierson's house but at the same time trying to get away from the man behind her. She could feel herself running out of energy, she hadn't slept in 36 hours and she'd done enough running already today, the man was catching up with her bit by bit and Van Pelt began to give up. Eventually she did manage to reach the house, but her arm was grabbed as she reached the point on the sidewalk she was sat before. Grace struggled, trying to get away but he had her.<br>"Gracie? Don't run… it's me."

_CBI HQ_

Running through all the files that Grace had been looking at was taking a very long time for Lisbon. There had to be a link between all of them, surely they can't all have been edited? Someone must have missed something… but every single file or article just seemed to turn up the same thing – a completely uninteresting story. Whatever she'd been doing, Van Pelt was on to something important here and Lisbon needed to work out what her hunch could possibly be. All of a sudden one of the articles caught her eye, "Rigsby, Cho, get in here! I can't quite believe what I'm seeing…" Lisbon stared at the picture on this article, well hidden in folders and more folders on Grace's account. The picture was in an article from 9 years ago and showed Pierson standing on a stage, holding an award for his company – all seemed legit enough, but behind him was a woman, a red haired woman trying to look happy, but clearly hurt…  
>"That's Grace… and she's… pregnant?" Rigsby took the words right from Lisbon's mouth as she looked at it.<p>

Jane walked in just as Rigsby said that. He knew Lisbon would get him for coming back before she said, but he didn't really care about that too much. She was harmless really… in her own special way. "Ouch, now there's a past… want to know my guess?"  
>"NO!"<br>"Okay…"

_Van Pelt's home_

Grace stood in the kitchen, trying to make coffee but still shaking too much from what had happened outside the house after she'd run back. It was dark now, nearly 8, but there was no chance of her sleeping tonight. She gave up on the coffee and went to the living room, curling up on the sofa tight, almost feeling the need to protect herself like something might happen to her. She'd locked the door, shut the curtains and knocked off every shelf in anger or fear… she couldn't decide which. But now she'd run out of distractions, now she had to think… and it scared her so much. Reaching over, she picked up her home phone from the floor where it had fallen and typed in the first number she could think of.  
>"Wayne…? Help me…"<p>

Rigsby ran straight from the office to get to Grace. She hadn't said on the phone what had happened, just said she needed his help and hung up. They both knew he'd seen where the spare key was so he let himself straight in when he arrived.  
>"Grace? Grace where are y…" He spotted her on the sofa, curled up and crying. The house was in a mess, Grace was sat in the middle of this mess with the same clothes on they saw her leave work in… but they were covered in blood, and it wasn't her own…<p>

**Please review, they mean a lot too! Hope you're enjoying xx**


	5. Betrayal for the Truth

**Thanks again for reading all Here's chapter 5! Hope you enjoy, please review! **

Rigsby stood in front of Van Pelt, not sure quite how to react. "Are you okay…?" He asked her, almost in a whisper. Grace didn't look up to him, she didn't even move – of course she wasn't okay, but she didn't want questions.  
>"Please… just… be here…" Grace gave him a pleading look. She just wanted comforting, just needed someone to hold her and she knew Wayne would do that for her, she wanted him to do that for her. Rigsby sat down beside Grace unsure quite how to comfort her without taking it too far. He knew that really he should call Lisbon, Grace was covered in someone else's blood after all… but he couldn't put her through that, whatever she'd done. Rigsby put his left arm around her shoulders and Grace leant in to him, feeling his protection and relaxing slightly.<br>"Grace…" she shook her head before he could finish the sentence.  
>"I'm not going to tell you anything Wayne… I just need you here… promise me you won't tell the others?" He couldn't resist the look in her eyes as she said that so he nodded, but he knew he was going to have to tell them at some point – they're still CBI, whatever way he tried to look at it.<p>

_CBI HQ_

Jane and Cho were already there when Lisbon arrived after going home for the first night since Grace had disappeared. Rigsby however, wasn't which made no sense at all...  
>"Have either of you heard from Rigsby? Not much like him to be late; especially now." She asked, looking to Cho and Jane. They both shrugged, and Jane typically had a comment to make.<br>"My guess? Given that he ran off after he answered the phone last night… hot date? Or a lead…" he said, unhelpfully. Lisbon threw a pencil at him, which he caught and grinned at her.  
>"Not helpful Jane, we'd know if he had a lead. Just…" she paused as the phone rang, typically it was Wayne. "Rigsby? Where on earth are you? I thought you cared about this case!" Lisbon stopped as he started talking to her in a hushed voice. What followed, she didn't want to be hearing…<p>

_Van Pelt's home_

Rigsby was still holding a sleeping Grace in his arms as he ended the call. He watched her looking so calm, so settled… and he almost regretted that call. Essentially he'd just betrayed the love of his life… he should have covered for her. Too late now, Lisbon was on her way over with Cho and Jane, who Rigsby knew was going to ask Grace some really horrible questions to try and work out what happened. Something told Rigsby that Jane might have a broken nose by the end of today…. He heard the car pull up out front and looked back to Grace. It seemed like such a shame to wake her now, he'd watched her sleep most of the night, she was gorgeous… looked so innocent, other than the blood covering her shirt.

Lisbon banged on the door calling for Wayne to open up which woke Grace immediately. "Rigsby tell me you didn't…" he looked away as soon as she started talking, "You promised!" she shouted at him as he went to open the door, letting the rest of the team in.  
>"Gracie! Good to see you, oooo lots of blood, Rigsby wasn't kidding." Jane looked around as everyone glared at him, except Grace who started walking away from them. Lisbon called her back immediately but she kept walking in to her bedroom. "Go on Lisbon, follow, this is getting interesting…." Jane was smiling his usual smile which made everyone mad. "Okay, woman standing in front of us with blood all over her clothes, walking away and trying not to look any of us in the eye. Why is no one arresting her?" Lisbon sighed, knowing full well Jane was right; but she couldn't decide what annoyed her more, Jane being right or the fact she was about to arrest Grace Van Pelt. She walked after Grace, pulling her cuffs out; "Van Pelt, you know I have to do this." Grabbing her arm she cuffed a struggling Van Pelt, uncomfortably pinning her against the wall, whispering to her "I'm sorry, I really am…"<br>"Not your fault Lisbon!" Jane called, inspecting all the broken things lying on the floor. Lisbon ignored him as she led Grace out to the car, instructing Rigsby and Cho to stay back and search her flat – she knew Cho would keep Rigsby in line for her. Grace hadn't said anything since shouting at Rigsby about calling them, but she definitely wasn't the normal Van Pelt they all knew and loved… and it did look badly like she'd got herself in a serious situation.

_CBI HQ – Interview room_

Lisbon sat opposite Grace in the interview room, the awkwardness of this situation was seriously hard to deal with. The case file sat in front of her as she watched Grace look around the room in the plain clothes they'd put her in. Sighing gently, she started questioning her.  
>"Whose blood was on your clothes Grace?" she asked, receiving a shrug in return. "We're testing it as we speak, would make all our lives easier if you just told us wouldn't it? We're not accusing you of anything right now…"<br>"Oh, but it does look suspicious, I mean you didn't exactly call and tell us anything and there's an awful lot of blood on you. Your gun is missing and you've been distinctly angry recently… am I not helping? Sorry. I'll be quiet now." Jane left the room to watch through the glass, leaving Lisbon to deal with Grace on her own; who finally spoke up.  
>"You won't find a match…" she replied. "You won't find anything, it's all gone." Lisbon looked at her, a mix of anger and concern in her face. "What? I didn't kill anyone if that's what you're thinking… I just did what I had to do." Grace watched around the room, waiting for Jane to come back in and almost shocked when he didn't.<br>"Grace… we know about you and Pierson." Lisbon said out straight, realising they couldn't hide it from her any longer. "This isn't looking good for you."


	6. Giving the Slip

**Hey guys! Thanks to everyone who has been reading, I'm really grateful! This chapter took me a while to write compared to the others because of some big decisions which I hope will make the story more enjoyable. **

**Realised I haven't told you this recently, so just to remind I don't own the mentalist … shame really, I have some great ideas :P.**

It was starting to scare all of them how much evidence was building up against Grace. Lisbon hung up to the phone from being told by Cho that Grace's gun was used to shoot a John Doe; on top of her admission about tampering with files and her connection to Pierson… it was scary to even think about what was going to happen next.

Rigsby returned to the office on Lisbon's order. Grace was getting herself in to a big mess now, ever since Lisbon mentioned they knew about Pierson she wouldn't talk to her or Jane. The hope was that she might talk to Wayne – Lisbon wasn't a fan of using their feelings for this purpose, but they all knew Rigsby and Van Pelt opened up to each other… so Lisbon let Rigsby going to the interview room and left to watch with Jane. Grace didn't move when he walked in, just stayed staring at the table. Rigsby decided against sitting opposite and pulled the chair around to sit beside Grace, placing a hand cautiously on hers. "Talk to me Grace… tell me what happened. I don't believe you would hurt anyone."  
>"Well believe it…" she looked up at him with pain in her eyes, seeing the shock in his face, "No, that's not a confession. I didn't kill him…" Rigsby so wanted to believe her;<br>"That's not what it looks like Grace…" he said to her weakly, having to fight hard to say it.  
>"I didn't hurt him Wayne; I watched him die." She told him, trying so hard not to cry; she'd revealed too much already she couldn't afford anymore. "Leave me alone if you're just going to question me, I can't deal with it anymore, either arrest me or let me go…" she reluctantly took her hand away from his and sat back.<br>"Who did you watch die…? Grace, this is important. If you tell us we can find out who really did it…" he didn't finish before Jane walked in.  
>"She's not going to tell you, we all know that. Why don't we let her go? We have her gun, there's no harm going to happen." Lisbon walked in after him, hating to have to admit he was right but she nodded. "See, even Lisbon agrees with me. There's a first time for everything. Bye Grace!" he shouted as he walked out.<p>

Cho walked in having finally come back from the murder scene just as Lisbon was escorting Grace out for Rigsby to take her back.  
>"Any ID on our John Doe yet?" she asked, not expecting an answer.<br>"Actually yes… and I think you might be very interested in this too, but I apologise in advance." Cho told her and led her to the computer before pulling something up. "She's wiped this one too… our victim is Toby Barnes, 30. We don't know anymore about him because there's nothing on the system… helpfully. This would suggest that he had something to do with Van Pelt, and given that we have pretty much nothing on the guy it's not looking good..." Cho finished, spinning the chair round to face Lisbon. She didn't say anything, just stared at the computer screen before walking off, clearly having had an idea.

_Rigsby's house_

Wayne took Grace inside, sitting her down on the sofa. She wasn't impressed about having to go back to his, but technically her house was still being investigated – this just made life easier. He went to get coffee whilst she settled in. "I'll sleep on the sofa n that… just let me know if you need anything." Wayne said as he took the coffee over.  
>"If you ask me anything about what happened, I'll slap you. Got it? Good… sorry, I just needed to make that clear. Old memories hurt you know?" she sighed, sipping at her coffee. Rigsby was beginning to realise that Grace wanted to tell him what happened, but whatever it was must have some story behind it that she was scared of… he was going to have to try harder to get it out of her.<p>

***

Grace woke in the middle of the night; that dream had scared her more than anything before, and she knew she couldn't just lay there. Wayne was sound asleep, she could hear that and she couldn't wake him… she didn't want too. She had things to do which were very important… so she got up. Rigsby was lying with his gun on the sofa, somehow seemed to think he had to be ready to protect her which was going to make this very difficult. Climbing out of bed she grabbed her clothes and put them back on, including her gun holdall that they never took from her. She walked downstairs slowly, trying hard not to make the floor creek; the gun was visible as soon as she entered the room so she walked over slowly and picked it up but in doing so, managed to knock the lamp off the table. "Shit!" she said as Wayne woke up.  
>"Grace…? What're you doing…?" Rigsby asked, not noticing the missing gun which Grace carefully hid in her holdall under the jumper she was wearing.<br>"I erm… couldn't sleep… bad dream. Can I sit with you…?" Wayne nodded, moving over for her and putting an arm round her when she sits down. Grace leant in to him, almost willing herself to lose the anger building up inside of her to disappear whilst she was sat there. "I trust you… with everything…" she began talking to him "I'm sorry I hid so much from you… you deserve better than that…" she looked up at him, catching his eye line. They stared at each other for a minute or two, before moving in and kissing gently. Wayne wrapped his arms round Grace properly but he felt something unusual.  
>"Grace…" Suddenly she realised what he'd found and stood up.<br>"Don't touch me… don't try to stop me… just leave me alone…" she said, suddenly the comfort left her and the anger returned as her thoughts drifted back. She ran out before he had a chance to do anything.  
>"Damn…" Wayne said, understating before phoning Lisbon.<p>

Jane and Lisbon turned up at the house less than 15 minutes later, both jogging in looking slightly panicked which doesn't happen to Jane very often.  
>"Rigsby? Do you have any idea at all where she went? Did she give any clue?" Lisbon asked, looking around for anything useful.<br>"Nothing, she was really calm… telling me she was sorry for keeping things from me. There's one thing though… she's taken my gun." That made Jane and Lisbon immediately freeze.  
>"We need to find her. Now. If only we had any idea where she'd gone…"<br>"I vote Pierson's…" Jane inputted, and for once everyone agreed.

**Aaaaand another cliff-hanger for you! I'll try not to be too long uploading chapter 7, but please review! (It might make me more eager to write ;) )**


	7. Finding the Impossible

**Ahh it's been ages since I updated this! Sorry everyone. I really hope it was worth the wait! **

Round the corner from Pierson's they all began to get kitted up to go inside. As they pulled vests on and clipped their guns in place, it really started to hit all of them that they were doing this to protect themselves from Grace Van Pelt, the most harmless individual on their team. Jane was stood around watching them as usual;  
>"Y'know, if I'd had to vote on who would go crazy first it'd probably be Rigsby…" he took in their glares and shrugged "What? He just seems the most likely that's all... I'm obviously wrong so there's no need to look at me like that. He's just got the hair for it."<br>"The hair? Really?" Wayne looked at him, not really sure what to think about this conversation.  
>"Well yeh, all stuck up and gelly, but then Grace is a red-head…" Jane shut up before the whole team slapped him one. Lisbon gave the order to head round slowly so they did.<p>

Rigsby hadn't felt so nervous about a break in in his whole career. Knowing that inside that house he's likely to find Grace Van Pelt with a murder suspect and a gun was hard to even think about let alone plan to stop her. She was one of them; a CBI agent, and a very good one at that, she didn't seem the type to get over-involved in a case, let alone tampering with files and heading off to hurt a suspect. As he looked around before they entered, he saw the rest of the team looking nearly as scared as he was. They could never feel the same though, not like he did – he loved her, and he was about to go and arrest her. Something was wrong, so very wrong with all of this; Grace would never do this without a reason, and a very good reason at that – she needed reason for everything, whoever the suspect was… so why is she doing this now? There must be something they've missed in all this…

Cho was calmer than the rest of them, but that was to be expected. However that didn't mean he wasn't worried about any of this, Van Pelt was still a member of the team and Cho liked her, she was a good cop with a promising career… or at least she was. He was nearest the door for this, ready to open the door up and let everyone in. As they stood outside, all he could think about was what they might find inside, what might have happened to Van Pelt or what she might be doing. Stopping a stranger from doing something stupid is one thing, but a cop? And more importantly – one of your own… now that was hard, very hard. Rigsby was looking on the verge of a break down when Cho looked over, understandably. He felt responsible, they could all see that – he shouldn't, but he did.

Jane stood back; this was generally one of the few times he did as he was told – his lack of firearm made him slightly at risk when they stormed in to a house, s he tended to follow in after so he could make a sarcastic comment or question the subject in his slightly odd if not unethical manner. This time however, he wasn't convinced he wanted to go in, and he didn't really want to be right about this. It was unusual for him to feel anything much towards a case, of course he wasn't going to show that he cared, but he did. Watching them all gear up and get in position, he hoped that they'd find nothing, as unlikely as it was. He was fond of Grace, he was fond of the whole team, and this was hurting everyone. Distantly he could hear Lisbon counting down after some words of encouragement; it was so sad to think about what was about to happen…

Lisbon stood behind a local officer. She'd already told them to let CBI in first, they knew how to deal with Grace better than anyone… or so she thought. None of them could have predicted any of this would happen even a couple of days ago. Everything just seemed normal… but now Lisbon doubted herself, trying to see something that might have been done differently, or something she could have done to see what was coming. It was hard for Lisbon to not blame herself with all this, after all it would be her who would be blamed for it anyway… with good reason. Thinking it over now she didn't check up on Grace nearly as much as she should; she trusted her to get on with things and maybe she should have. Grace was bright, very bright, and clever enough to wipe files and tamper with news articles… now that could be a useful skill, just not for this reason. Lisbon whispered the usual orders, finishing with 'this is Grace, but we have to forget that for now' before they ran in.

The door flung open with Cho's push; they all ran in shouting the usual things and checking each room. One by one everyone shouted to confirm a clear room and secretly they were all relieved to find no one in. Lisbon regrouped everyone once they'd double checked to talk it over. Jane ambled in, starting to walk around the house whilst they did 'the boring bit'. He was looking for everything they weren't… and he certainly found it. In Pierson's room the picked up a picture of him and Grace looking vaguely happy with a young child in her arms. Next to that picture lay an article – of course, the one thing Grace couldn't edit was the actual paper. After calling Lisbon up to see those, Jane continued wandering around the house, certain there was something they'd missed. He came across what looked like a cupboard – he'd checked this himself in the original search, but now something was bugging him. On opening the cupboard it was so obvious; a concealed entrance. He opened the hidden door slowly and searched for a light switch for the darkened room. What he found was more than evidence… "LISBON!" He shouted and stared around the four walls, covered in pictures of Grace.

_CBI HQ_

"Cho, Rigsby, get looking through those photos. I know it's hard but we need to know why he had them. Jane, keep an eye. Sometimes you spot things we miss… I've got some articles to read; we need to come up with a story here, put together Van Pelt's past." They all nodded and got to work as Lisbon left for her office with a collection of newspaper cuttings. Sat at her desk she started to read through them and as she did she realised exactly why Grace didn't want them to see this. It was slowly becoming obvious that Pierson didn't just know Grace – they'd been married. So she was married to a rich guy, not too much of a problem if just a little off – Grace could only have been 20 after all. But suddenly one article stood out, the one from the table in the bedroom – 'Pierson's big marriage end with shameful affair.' "Oh shit…" Lisbon whispered t herself. But the worst was still to come out…  
>"Boss!" Wayne ran in, "He was following Grace… it's dated back when she was 20. It was taken outside where she studied… she's with Barnes, they're clearly having an affair." He handed the photo over to her.<br>"So now we're dealing with an angry break-up suddenly coming to light… and Pierson may well have shot Toby. Great… but why would Grace be so angry with him? I can only presume that is what she wiped from her records?" Lisbon signed softly "Oh Grace what have you done…?"

**Okay, I promise to be quicker in future, and reviews would inspire that... :)**


	8. Good Girl Gone Bad

**Apologies that you keep getting two emails about my chapters, I keep posting up the wrong thing first time! This is the penultimate chapter of this story, I hope you enjoy! **

**Note: I do still own nothing, nada, zilch... :(**

Grace waited outside Pierson's until he left the house. She knew he would – his normal late night jog was very predictable. Standing up, she walked over to him quietly as he locked up the house. She waited a minute before grabbing his arms and forcefully cuffing him.  
>"Grace!" Pierson shouted, "What the hell are you doing?" he asked. She placed the gun against his back just enough for him to feel it.<br>"Quiet… just come with me." She took his keys from his pocked and led him to the car. Once she had them both in, she began driving away – it was only a matter of time before the team turned up to try and find her so she needed to be somewhere unexpected. She ignored everything Craig Pierson said to her in the car, just focusing on driving and the reason she was doing this. Grace was feeling bad already, struggling not to call Wayne and apologise. She hated herself for hurting him, and the team – but that's how it had to be to end this. Pierson was going to pay. Looking over at him she couldn't help but smile. He was scared – good.

Deciding where to go wasn't really top of her mind, she just kept driving, turning when roads ran out. It started to get light so she realised she was going to have to find something. A disused house was coming up on their right so she pulled over.  
>"We'll stop here." Grace said, getting out and going round, pulling him out and following him inside. Once they were in she sat down on the floor, leaning against the wall and gesturing angrily for him to sit down opposite, keeping the gun in her hand. She stared at the floor, angry with herself but even angrier with Craig. Deciding what to do with him now was the next step… she hadn't really thought much about that. He spoke up soon after…<br>"What're you doing here Grace? What is all this about? I told you everything back at your office." She tried not to let anymore anger swell up inside but just the sound of his voice drove her mad.  
>"You lied to me Craig, you lied…" she said seemingly quite calm.<br>"Lying is your speciality if I remember correctly." He replied, that hit her hard and he could see that. "Oh come on, you really think I'm scared of you? After everything I don't think you're much of a risk to me." Pierson got up, ignoring the fact her gun was pointing at him, she was never going to shoot – at least that's what he believed. "You scared Gracie? It's been a long time…" Craig kept walking towards her and stood right in front of where she was sat. Grace looked up at him; anger turning to fear as memories came flooding back. "Ooo there it is… that same old look. The girls had it too you know…" he kicked Grace in the side "This would never have happened if you hadn't been so stupid. It's all your fault, remember that!"

A while later everything had calmed down; Grace was staring out of the window and Pierson had moved back to the other side of the room. "You… you killed innocent children because of me…?" Grace spoke up; things were beginning to really niggle in her mind.  
>"Sounds about right to me… you were the one that left weren't you? And stop talking about them like that." That was all she needed to hear, that was all she needed to back up her decision.<p>

_CBI HQ_

"Without finding Grace and Pierson we're never going to know exactly what happened. There's nothing here, she might have made mistakes but certainly not enough for all this." Lisbon stood up. "We need to find out where she is." Wayne was on the phone so she spoke quieter, but he heard her and put the phone down but didn't hang up.  
>"It's Grace's phone, I'm sure of it. I'm tracking it now… she's called, whether by accident or on purpose I don't know but I'm sure it's her voice. Not learnt anything we don't already know, other than Pierson just confessed to killing the girls so we're arresting him either way… got it, abandoned house not too far from here." They all jumped up, grabbing coats, guns and vests before running out to the car.<p>

_Abandoned house_

The light was shining in through the window now, shining on the wall beside Grace. Neither of them had moved in a long time and the silence was for once quite a nice thing. Every now and then Grace checked her phone to make sure the call was still on; she'd switched to Wayne's mobile a while ago, knowing they'd want to keep her on. They must have been on the way by now… but they might be too late. Craig started to move towards her again.  
>"Why're we both waiting? I'm hardly going to let you go now you know the truth am I?"<br>"I knew the truth all along Craig…" she sighed, knowing he means the confession but not in the mood for conversation.  
>"Still, you're just going to get what you've deserved for years…" he started at her, walking faster across the room and bringing his hands up. Grace immediately picked her gun up.<br>"You killed my children! And Toby! You ruined my life for so many years and I'd finally started to move on!" She held the gun at him, anger clear in her face making Pierson pause.  
>"Moving on is exactly why I hurt them. I didn't mean to kill them! I just wanted your attention!" Craig looked serious, but that didn't change Grace's view. It suddenly dawned on her he must have been following her.<br>"You bastard… I'm going to kill you!"


	9. Problem Solved

**Hi all! Final chapter's here of this. Please feel free to review and let me know your final view on the story.**

**Reached the end of the story and I still don't own it... :(**

"This is it!" Rigsby called out. Lisbon pulled over and jumped out, being careful not to slam the door. They gathered together to Lisbon could talk quietly.  
>"We don't want to scare them, we know there's at least one gun in there and CBI agents react on instinct, we all know that so careful okay? Rigsby I want you in first, I'm hoping your presence will calm Grace. Go on now." They all walked over to the house, preparing themselves. It wasn't going to be locked because the house was abandoned which made life a little easier. Rigsby led the way, standing outside the front door whilst everyone got in to position. After a minute or so Lisbon started to count down, and on 0 they went in.<p>

"Your friends are here…" Pierson whispered "You won't do anything now." He was using the old voice, the one Grace recognised. She pushed the gun harder on to his chest.  
>"You don't deserve life, you've ruined too many others…" she whispered before shooting upwards quickly to scare him. "Think I won't do anything?"<p>

All of them heard the shot and immediately ran upstairs, Rigsby leading the way at twice the speed of everyone else.  
>"Grace!" Wayne ran in to the room. "Oh damn it Grace… put the gun down… he's not worth it. We can let him rot in jail instead, we know what he's done…" he walked slowly towards her despite Lisbon's harsh whispers. "Come on sweetheart… its okay, just give the gun to me and we'll work this out. Everything you've done was in self-defence or to help catch him unless you pull that trigger…" he reached her and placed a hand on her shoulder, pressuring slightly for her to lower the weapon. "It's okay now… we're here…." A pause fell over the room as everyone held their breath over what might happen. 15 seconds passed before Grace dropped her gun and let herself fall in to Rigsby, sobbing gently.<br>"I'm so sorry…"

Cho cuffed Pierson and led him out to the car leaving Lisbon, Rigsby, Jane and Van Pelt in the room. Grace hadn't left Wayne's arms since she dropped the weapon and it didn't look like she was going to leave him anytime soon but Lisbon just let it go, now wasn't the time.  
>"I'm going to make sure nothing happens to you Grace… you didn't nothing wrong really. But you will have to tell us everything… I'm sorry." Lisbon told her, placing a hand on her back comfortingly.<br>"I understand… I didn't mean for all this; I'm sorry" she replied, beginning to return to her normal self now Craig was gone for good. "Let's get back so we can get this over with…"  
>"No, we'll talk tomorrow. You go home tonight; I know you're not going to go anywhere."<p>

The following day Grace sat with Rigsby in the interview room. Lisbon was watching behind the glass but everyone else had agreed to stay out of the way. Grace began to tell him everything…  
>"I married Craig when I was 18… I loved him then, what I didn't see was how he was blackmailing me and controlling everything I did. After a year I fell pregnant, I was so happy… but that's when he started drinking. Not because he didn't love our baby but he just… did. The abuse started not long after and he was really controlling… I couldn't leave. But I was studying, obviously otherwise I wouldn't be here…, and I met Toby there. I loved him so much, so we started meeting outside of lectures and things; but Craig found out… and you can imagine… yeh. Then I was pregnant again, it was Craig's baby luckily, but it made things worse. After the baby was born I couldn't stay anymore, I left, but I couldn't take the girls with me. I fought for custody and lost… he built the divorce on my affair, I had no chance. For a couple of years I checked up on them, it was fine… so I decided to keep my distance, cut it out so I could start a new life. When we got the call I just knew what must have happened… I just couldn't work out why until yesterday when I realised he must have been following me. When we interviewed him I realised how bad his anger had got… it's all my fault… and Toby was just in the wrong place at the wrong time…"<br>Wayne wrote everything down before handing the notes to Lisbon.  
>"Come on, we're getting you home. My home, I'm not leaving you alone…" he said, and took her hand. They went home together, case closed.<p>

**Thank you for reading! If you want to read more, I have a new Mentalist story "Such is Life" which I'm currently writing, cheers :)**


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